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In some areas, competition
over certified teachers has become so fierce that districts are promising
signing bonuses, paid health insurance, subsidized housing, and more.
Just what does it take to woo -- or lose -- a teacher? This week,
Education World explores what some school districts are doing to attract
and retain teachers.

Stir in lack of teacher mobility, inadequate induction programs, poor
working conditions, the lowest unemployment in three decades, and a growing
salary gap between teachers and other college graduates -- a difference
of more than $32,000 for experienced teachers with master's degrees --
and you have created the worst shortage of qualified teachers ever.

The problem -- especially acute in urban and rural districts and in
the hard-to-fill areas of special education, mathematics, and science
-- is so severe that

Forty-two states issue emergency credentials to people who have taken
no education courses and have not taught a day in their lives. Many
teachers are hired based solely on their experience leading church or
camping groups.

One-fourth of new teachers -- if they are licensed -- are not licensed
to teach in the field they are teaching.

Twenty percent of new teachers leave within the first three years;
most likely to leave are those with the highest college-entrance exam
scores. A whopping 49 percent of those who leave do so because of job
dissatisfaction or to pursue another career.

WHAT CAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS DO TO FIND AND KEEP TEACHERS?

School districts have come up with some very creative ways to woo teachers
to their schools. Following is a sampling of some of the creative enticements
and other programs that some school districts are offering.

Massachusetts offered incredible $20,000 signing bonuses to exceptional
new teachers, the money paid out over four years. The state had more
than 800 applicants and thousands of requests for information from people
in 36 states and two foreign countries.

New York City school officials have recruited people from other countries.
Austrians who are teaching math and science were recruited in part with
a flyer that pronounced, "If you can read this, have we got a deal for
you!" City officials interviewed the Austrians via teleconferencing.
Housed temporarily in dorms, the new recruits received a crash course
in New York culture and learned how to start bank accounts. New York
school officials have also looked to Puerto Rico and Spain for middle
school Spanish teachers. In the future, the city is thinking of recruiting
in Switzerland and Scotland too. City school officials also streamlined
hiring procedures, setting up satellite offices in 11 community districts
to conduct interviews, gather fingerprints, and check backgrounds. Additionally,
they granted hefty 15 percent raises to teachers who agreed to work
in high-needs schools.

Officials from some California and Texas school districts traveled
to Mexico to hire Spanish-speaking teachers. They also streamlined the
process by which out-of-state teachers obtain credentials.

The New Haven (California) school district has so streamlined recruitment
that it directs candidates to the nearest Kinko's and conducts interviews
online.

Philadelphia school officials relaxed residency requirements. They
also solicited the help of area clergy to appeal to their congregations
to consider teaching jobs there.

Connecticut raised salaries to one of the highest levels in the nation
and then equalized salaries throughout the state, making it easier for
poor districts to attract certified teachers. Additionally, the city
of Hartford pays teachers' health insurance; offers a myriad of teaching
options, including experimental programs and charter and magnet schools;
and grants veteran teachers $100 annual bonuses for every year served.

SPECIAL INCENTIVES -- AND DAY CARE TOO!

Minority teacher candidates and paraprofessionals interested in special
education in Wichita, Kansas, receive financial support, Kenneth V. Jantz,
principal of Mueller Elementary, told Education World. And when Kansas
school officials found they could reduce new teacher attrition if teacher
candidates had more in-class experiences with master teachers before stepping
in front of their own classes, Wichita State offered education majors
the option of spending ten to fifteen hours a week for two years in schools
rather than the traditional one semester.

Buford, a district northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, subsidizes an on-site
day-care center and plans to install a closed-circuit camera to allow
teachers to check on their children during the day. Carmel Clay Schools,
a district north of Indianapolis built two on-site centers and plans several
more.

Some states forgive the loans of those who teach in critical needs areas
or hard-to-staff schools. Others offer new teachers mentorship programs.

START TEACHER RECRUITMENT EARLY!

Maryland educators talk not only to high school students about becoming
teachers but also to those in junior high! Plus signing bonuses,
stipends for teachers who work in low-performing schools, and extra pay
for master veteran educators are quite compelling. Lawmakers are considering
tax-deductions for professional development materials and professional
organization membership dues and $500 tax credits.

Baltimore provides teachers low-cost housing -- or closing costs on
a home in the city -- and relocation assistance!

California's Silicon Valley not only provides grants to teachers willing
to retrain in high-needs subjects but also is considering offering housing
subsidies to attract teachers to the high-priced district.

Providing scholarships, special low-interest home loans, low-cost rental
housing, moving expenses, and free graduate courses if one teaches in
areas that attract few applicants is how Mississippi has tried to attract
teachers. Additionally, the West Tallahatchee district built duplex housing
to create an environment that encourages friendships and a sharing of
classroom strategies.

Forty states plus the District of Columbia recognize one another's credentialing
systems, so veteran teachers can move across state lines. Forty-one states
and the District of Columbia provide alternative teaching routes to bring
professionals with varied backgrounds and life experiences -- such as
retired military personnel, early retirees, and those seeking career changes
-- into the classroom.

CREDIT FOR PAST EXPERIENCES

If Nevada's initiatives pass, teachers will be offered interesting enticements.
Teachers will receive an extra year of retirement credit for every five
years they teach in special-needs schools. Teachers in rural schools will
be able to convert their unused sick leave into one year of retirement
credit. And new hires will receive full credit for their years of experience
elsewhere instead of the five years they currently receive.

Nebraska already grants almost all new hires full credit for their prior
years of experience, principal Matt Fisher of Chase County High School
in Imperial, Nebraska, told Education World. And several schools offer
signing bonuses.

Some apartment associations in Chesterfield County, Virginia, waive
initial deposits for teachers. Loudoun County (Virginia) pays teachers'
retirement contributions. Fairfax County (Virginia) offers signing bonuses
and a streamlined application process. Other districts reimburse graduate
school tuitions or give hotel and restaurant vouchers to teachers who
come for interviews. Some Virginia counties even grant "life experience"
credit to teachers in special-needs areas, enabling them to start with
higher salaries.

Academic Education Network consultant Carole Roche told Education World
that Dallas schools offer signing bonuses to each new hire. And Texas
schools -- like those in Maryland and South Carolina -- sometimes rehire
recent retirees who receive pensions as well as salaries.

Why not change our Social Security policy? That's a question Christopher
T. Cross asked in a recent Education Week article, "States'
Uneven Teacher Supply Complicates Staffing Of Schools." Cross, president
of the Council for Basic Education and a former assistant U.S. secretary
of education in the Bush administration, added that waiving the cap on
retirement earnings for teachers would allow retirees to get back into
the classroom and still collect Social Security. That proposal might be
especially attractive since many retirees move to places with very severe
teacher shortages -- such as Florida, Texas, Nevada, and California.

To staff their schools, some states and districts with high salary scales
lure teachers away from their neighbors. Districts in Nevada, Oregon,
and Washington, for example, arrange for Montana State students to do
their practice teaching out of state and then invite them to stay on after
graduation.

WILL THE INCENTIVES WORK?

According to the latest statistics, U.S. schools will need approximately
2 million new teachers over the next decade. It will not be easy for school
systems to find them. Streamlining hiring procedures; expanding the search
beyond customary borders; forgiving loans; offering signing bonuses, housing
assistance, mentoring programs; enticing retirees to return -- or enter
-- teaching; and raising teachers' salaries to what other comparatively
educated college graduates receive certainly won't hurt. But also consider
the working conditions.

As school systems add more and more curricula for teachers to cover
-- and put more and more emphasis on standardized test scores -- many
teacher say they have less time to be creative. They have become technicians,
implementing fragmented curriculum in a time frame that's frequently inadequate
for the material required. Add to that bus duty, hall duty, homeroom,
large groups of sometimes unruly students, minimal planning time, mountains
of paperwork, and frequent assignments to subjects for which they're unprepared,
there's little time left to plan, create, and grow.

LACK OF MOBILITY

Then there's the lack of mobility. Even in states that do recognize
past experience, problems exist.

"I loved my students, but my parents were aging, and my kids grew up
and moved away. I wanted to be closer to both," Tolland (Connecticut)
Middle School teacher Barbara Reich told Education World.

"After setting up my new home in Rhode Island, I'd like to teach, but
I don't have the mobility," she continued. "By now, I am so far up on
the salary scale, [school officials] may not hire me if they can get a
new kid out of college and pay one-third my salary," said Reich, her county's
Teacher of the Year.

TEACHERS LIKE TO SUCCEED

"Teachers like to succeed, and when schools make that possible, they
are more likely to remain in the profession," Jon Snyder told Education
World. Snyder is a senior researcher for the National Commission on Teaching
and America's Future and the director of teacher education at the University
of California (Santa Barbara). "The most effective strategies are to organize
schools in such a way that teachers can be successful with their students
and in ways that allow teachers to continually learn with and from each
other."

Any real solution to the teacher shortage problem requires a comprehensive
plan, a blueprint for preparing, recruiting, supporting, retaining, and
structuring the job. All are important. School reform cannot occur by
addressing one area and ignoring the others. We need to create conditions
in which teachers can teach, and teach well. Perhaps in addition to other
initiatives, to attract and retain the best and the brightest teachers,
we need to provide them an environment in which they can thrive.

Sweetening the Pot
This article describes ways states have tried to attract, train, and
retain teachers. Among other things, the article describes the interstate
contract that makes it easier for teachers to teach in different states,
the number of states that forgive student loans, and some of Detroit's
and Maryland's initiatives.